When
you read the Declaration of Independence you will read what has been
called one of the most inspiring sentences devised by man: “We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
America became the envy of the world because its citizens were allowed
to enjoy these God given rights. At that time in history rulers of nations
did not allow their citizens these rights. Only aristocracy enjoyed
the privileges of property ownership, freedom to do what they wanted
to do whether it was to own a business or get an education. In America
they could pursue that education, be a farmer or a carpenter, doctor,
lawyer or engineer. The choice was theirs to make and the only thing
that could stop them was themselves.

In
America there was freedom of religion. You could worship how you pleased.
In Europe many nations required that you be Catholic and only Catholic.
In England you were required to support the Church of England, whether
you wanted to or not. Many people were put to death for printing a Bible
that wasn’t approved by the Church of England. Even in America
before the Revolutionary War the only Bible that was allowed was the
King James Version. America was not even allowed to print Bibles on
our own soil until after the Revolutionary War. Then Congress allocated
funds to have a Bible printed for the people of America.

In
America you can own property and that, even today, is not something
that everyone can do. When an individual owns property is gives him
the power to do what he wants with that property. In our Constitution’s
5th Amendment states: “No person shall. . . be deprived of life,
liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall private property
be taken for public use without just compensation.” A few years
back the Supreme Court destroyed our constitutional rights concerning
private property. It has always been accepted that if a city or town
needs property for a school, library or highway that the city could
exercise what is called imminent domain to acquire that property. However
this case went one step further and confiscated property, homes from
homeowners, to build more housing and shopping a center. The reason
the city gave was that it would be good for the city’s ‘economic
development’. The case is explained as follows from Wikipedia:

The
city eventually agreed to move Susette Kelo's house to a new location
and to pay substantial additional compensation to other homeowners.
The redeveloper was unable to obtain financing and abandoned the redevelopment
project, leaving the land as an empty lot,[2] which was eventually turned
into a dump by the city.

It
is quite clear that our Founders would not have allowed this case to
proceed to any court let alone the Supreme Court. Though ‘economic
development’ is essential to every city, this is nothing but blatant
overstepping of our constitutional rights. I personally know of a man
who bought several acres of land 30 years ago along a road that was
destined for commercial development. He had an offer of $4 million for
the land from a developer but the zoning wasn’t what the developer
needed. When he tried to re-zone the property the city refused because
they wanted that piece of property for ‘open space’. They
offered him $1 million for it and when he refused they said that they
would do imminent domain for 10 cents of the dollar if he didn’t
take their offer. That is legalized theft. I don’t have a problem
with the city buying property, but if the appraised value is a certain
figure, then that is what they should pay not 10 cents on the dollar.
This needs to be corrected. If it takes a law that must be passed declaring
that fair market value must be paid then the people must demand that
the law be passed. Legislated theft is still theft. We sit back and
do nothing.

Our
Constitution states in Article 4, Section 4 – ‘The United
States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form
of government and shall protect each of them against invasion.’
There are several areas along our border with Mexico where the government
has simply posted signs warning American’s to not access American
territory because there is a danger of drug runners and human traffickers
in the area. That is property of the United States and if there is that
kind of activity, then the government is constitutionally obligated
to correct it. The people are not demanding that our border is protected
properly and consequently, it isn’t. No president since Eisenhower
has done much about the illegal traffic across our southern border.
We the people need to begin to demand that the government uphold its
constitutional obligations.

We
continue to allow the government to either ignore its constitutional
obligations to us or we let them take our constitutional rights away
from us without a fight. TSA illegally searches passengers at the airport
and now they have expanded to bus stations and spot checks on highways.
This is just like the old USSR where you were searched whenever you
traveled across the nation. Our 4th Amendment states: ‘The right
of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and
no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and
the persons or things to be seized.’ Random searches without warrants
are happening thousands of times every day at every airport in America.
We complain a little but that is all. I recently flew to Los Vegas for
a wedding and on my return flight out of hundreds of passengers going
through security a TSA agent looked at my shirt, it had an American
flag on it, and I had to go through their x-ray machine. I was the only
one subjected to that backscatter machine. I was traveling with my wife
and grandson but neither of them were pulled out for that. I specifically
remember the TSA agent looked at my shirt and then told me I had to
go through the machine. I asked him if I looked suspicious and he just
stated that it was a random thing. I don’t think so. Sec. Napolitano
has stated that returning vets, pro-lifers, pro-legal immigration supporters
and gun rights supporters are ‘probable’ terrorists. My
shirt made me look pro-American which made me all the above, so I was
singled out.

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There
was a time when a preacher could stand in the pulpit and declare that
as a Christian you could or could not vote for a particular candidate
or support a particular political party. Our Founding Fathers strongly
believed in the population being correctly informed about the people
being put in authority over the population. John Jay, the first Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court stated: “Providence has given to
our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as
the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer
Christians for their rulers.” John Adams stated: “Religion
and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all
free government, but of social felicity under all government and in
all the combinations of human society.” John Quincy Adams stated
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected
in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the
principles of Christianity.” Noah Webster stated "In selecting
men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular
sect or denomination of the candidate -- look to his character."

I
could list thousands of other quotes that state the obvious and that
is the Founders depended on the people of high moral character and preferably
Christian. Because of this the preachers would always do an election
sermon to inform the people as to who was and who wasn’t a godly
candidate. In 1954 after a very questionable election Senate for Lyndon
Johnson had an amendment to an IRS bill that made it illegal for a non-profit
to endorse a candidate or party or oppose a candidate or party. This
was because some churches were talking about his election in 1948 to
the Senate when he won by only 87 votes and he was able to stop all
recounts. As it turned out one person who counted the votes in 1948
stated on his deathbed that the count was rigged for Johnson.

The
church complained but never forced the situation. Now most pastors don’t
even know that the church was ever involved in the political process.
The IRS has never taken anyone to court over this because it has been
very effective as a threat. That amendment is a blatant violation of
the 1st Amendment but because it hasn’t ever been challenged the
IRS has been able to use it to keep the church out of the political
arena for the last 57 years. The influence of the church needs to return
to the political arena. Since 1954 we have seen the quality of representatives
decline at an alarming rate. There are open homosexuals that are helping
pass laws the forces that lifestyle on all American’s. Going into
the 2010 elections there were 70 members of Congress that belonged to
the Democrat Socialists of America. Had the church maintained their
presents in the political arena I don’t believe that this would
be the case. So many pastors today won’t stand up for their rights
and forget that they will stand before God on judgment and not the IRS.
I believe that if they would stand up to the IRS that amendment would
be overturned as unconstitutional. Over the last few years during the
month of September many churches have endorsed a candidate from the
pulpit recorded the sermon and then sent it to the IRS but the IRS hasn’t
done anything about it because they are convinced, I’m sure, that
if they do take it court, they will lose because the law is more effective
as a threat.

We
used to be able to fish and hunt freely but now we have to have a license
and can only hunt at certain times. No longer can we do things because
it is something that we need to do but when it is profitable for the
state. We have to have permission from local governments to make improvements
to our property and can only build what they say we can build. We have
stood back and let government take over too much of our lives, public
and private. All city council meetings in America from the Founding
until the 1960’s were opened with a pray to God in the Name of
Jesus. Now we can’t do that because of an imagined ‘separation
of church and state’ that our Founders knew nothing about nor
did they ever envision such stupidity.

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We
must stand up and take back the rights that the government has taken
from us. The best way to do that is at the ballot box. Recently 93 of
100 Senators voted to take our 5th Amendment away. Ninety three! I say
replace all 100 and sue the 93 for violating their oath to uphold the
Constitution, then impeach Obama for signing the bill violating his
oath. We don’t hold our elected officials accountable anymore
and neither do we hold judges accountable. They issue decisions on votes
on the constitutionality of the votes of the people and the Constitution
gives them no jurisdiction over the vote of the people. The only thing
they have jurisdiction over is what the legislature passes. There are
five members of the Supreme Court that have admitted to using international
law in deciding cases, but they are sworn to uphold the Constitution
only. Nobody does anything.

Our
inaction concerning our inalienable rights and constitutional freedoms
may cost us the rest of our freedoms unless we decide that enough is
enough!

Pastor Roger
Anghis is the Founder of RestoreFreeSpeech.org, an organization designed
to draw attention to the need of returning free speech rights to churches
that was restricted in 1954.

President of
The Damascus Project, TheDamascusProject.org,
which has a stated purpose of teaching pastors and lay people the need
of the churches involvement in the political arena and to teach the
historical role of Christianity in the politics of the United States.
Married-37 years, 3 children, three grandchildren.